Limitless Love (Lotus House #4)(8)
I frowned, anger prodding at my chest. “Why’s that?”
She answered around a mouthful of pasta. “He didn’t want me.”
Ice-cold fury slithered along my skin. “Is that what he told you?” I asked, realizing I was heading into territory I had no business getting into with a five-year-old.
“No. Mommy said he didn’t want her anymore, but everyone loves Mommy. She’s the bestest.” She shoveled more pasta into her mouth.
Even if she didn’t say it outright, she did in her own way—because her mother was loved by everyone, she figured that it must be her that her father didn’t want.
Mother. Fucking. Cocksucker.
I clenched my jaw and turned as a shadowy figure stepped into the hall. Instinctively I jetted around the kitchen and stood in front of Lily with my fists up. I’d beat down any intruder with my bare hands before they got to this angel.
“Who are you?” I roared, making sure I sounded extra scary. Lily cowered into my back, her forehead against my shirt.
“Dude! It’s me.” Atlas laughed, stepping into the light of the kitchen and shrugging off his coat. “Man, by the size of those muscles on display and your chest all puffed out, I’m lucky you didn’t charge me like a rhino!” He chuckled as he came up and clasped me on the shoulder. Tingles of anxiety slipped along my skin before petering out.
Atlas went around me, ruffled Lily’s hair, and kissed the top of her head. “Hey, munchkin, what’cha got there?”
“Mac’n’cheese!” she responded again with her mouth full.
Okay, kids weren’t always cute. They could be gross too.
“Got any more?” Atlas asked and rubbed his gut.
Silently I went around the bar countertop, pulled out another bowl, and loaded it up for my friend, letting the last dregs of irritation fade away.
Atlas turned on cartoons. “Hey, munchkin, you can watch TV in here while you eat. Clay and PowPow are going to go into the formal living room, okay?”
“’Kay!” Her eyes were already glued to a yellow square creature that lived under the water. I watched for a second as the square hit a starfish with a spatula.
I shook my head to clear the weirdness. Cartoons had definitely changed since my day.
Atlas grabbed the bowl I handed him, and we moved into the other room.
He scooped up a huge bite and ate for a few moments.
“How’s Monet? What happened?” I asked in a speedy deluge of questions.
Atlas lifted a hand. “She’s fine. Well, not fine. Had to have surgery, and the attacker… Dude, it was her ex, Kyle.”
“You’re kidding? He attacked her? How? Sexually?” The anger that had burned me earlier with Lily’s words about her father came back with a vengeance.
He shook his head, and a wave of relief settled over me. “Naw, he knifed her.”
I jerked my head back and my hands shook, almost making me drop the bowl. “What? Clarify.” I said through clenched teeth. A man putting his hands on a woman was wrong, deserving of a beating and jail time. A man knifing a woman… There wasn’t a space in hell hot enough for that type of scum.
“Guy had a mask on and threatened to kill her. When she ran, he chased after her. Then he caught up and sliced her open all down her back. Fileted her, man. She has over eighty stiches in her back alone.”
“Jesus Christ,” I blurted. Images of the stunning woman I’d seen around the yoga studio and all through the pictures of the house flickered in my mind along with the idea of her laid up in a hospital bed. A sour taste hit my tongue and my appetite disappeared.
“After he cut her, he tackled her to the pavement, which shredded her knees, elbows, and hands. Then he pierced her neck with the blade and sliced an almost three-inch-long shallow cut when someone intervened.”
I sat my ass on the arm of her fabric couch, my knees shaking under me. “Fuck!” I wiped at the glistening sweat that formed on my brow. “Shit. That’s serious.” Every protective instinct inside me warred for attention, wanting to do something, beat the shit out of someone in her honor.
Atlas nodded. “Yeah, we’re going to be staying here with them for a while. Make sure she’s safe until they find the bastard. I swear to God, if I ever see him face-to-face…”
“I’m right there with you. He better skip town.”
“So how did it go with Lily?” Atlas grinned.
I smiled automatically at the change in subject. “We had a good time. She’s easy. I can see why you like the kid.”
“Well, pretty soon here I’m going to have one of my own…” He scratched at the back of his neck and looked up at me through his curly brown mop of hair.
“Are you telling me you knocked up Mila Mercado?” I smirked.
“Fuck yeah I am! Confirmed with the doctor just today. Ten weeks along.”
“That’s awesome. I’m happy for you.” And I was happy for him that he had a woman he loved and was starting a family with her. And because Mila wasn’t a lying skank who would take him to the cleaners and ruin his life.
Deftly, I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that Stacey was long gone and that it was okay—healthy, even—to be happy for my friend and his woman. Honestly, I was. More than anything, I wanted to be in a similar place in my own life. I was thirty. Time was flying by, the years merging into one another. I worked, I hung out with the guys, boxed with my buddy Nick when I had time, and did yoga. Women came in and out of my life, but I never offered more than a few dates and a few nights in the sack. It just never felt right to go for more after what I’d been through. Being here with Lily and hearing about another one of my best friends finding the right woman reminded me what I was missing out on.